PHI 3670, Ethical Theory

Review for Final Exam – Epicurus, Epictetus, Aquinas, Stocker, Nietzsche, Relativism, Sartre, K. Baier, Religious Ethics (incl. Plato and Kierkegaard), Feminist Ethics (incl. Baier and Held), Race and Ethnic Identity, Emotions (incl. article by Blum), Self-Control and Courage, Friendship (including Aristotle and Montaigne or Emerson), Supererogation (Wolff), Self-Respect (Emerson and Hampton), Moral Responsibility, Abortion, Suicide and Euthanasia, Animals and the Environment, and Carol Adams’ article.

Your final exam on Friday April 27 will be held in the normal class meeting room beginning at 1:00 p.m. You DO NOT need a blue book. The final will consist of 7-10 short answer essay questions. The questions below are review for the final exam.

1. How does Epicurus use the concepts of ataraxia, death and natural science in developing a form of virtue ethics?

2. Does Epictetus’ virtue ethics require apathy? What does this mean?

3. Why, for Aquinas, are wisdom, courage, temperance and justice insufficient as the “cardinal” virtues?

4. What does Stocker mean by the claim that modern moral theories suffer from a sort of “schizophrenia”? How is it to be remedied?

5. What is the significance of Nietzsche’s distinction between master and slave moralities and the distinctions between good/bad and good/evil?

6. In your considered view, is it possible for ethical relativism to lead to moral progress? How about moral criticism? What is the difference between cultural relativism and ethical relativism?

7. What does it mean for Sartre to claim that “existence precedes essence”? Does existentialist humanism claim that we are the highest value, that we are the “end”? Or does it mean that there is no moral lawmaker outside ourselves? What is the significance of the distinction?

8. Kurt Baier presents a moral theory of “good reasons.” In your considered view, is good reasons moral theory sufficient to solve practical moral problems? Why? Why is the self-interested point of view NOT the moral point of view, for Baier?

9. What are the major problems of Divine Command Ethics? How are these problems related to the problem of the definition of ‘piety’ in Plato’s Euthyphro?

10. Kierkegaard claims that human beings are not primarily knowers, but are instead deciders and doers. What does this mean? What does it have to do with the distinction between the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious life? How is all this related to the “leap of faith”?

11. How are the ethical positions of justice and care distinguished? In your view, which of them is morally superior, if either? Why?

12. For Held, why is the contractarian view of ethics insufficient as a theory of morality? With what should it be replaced?

13. What are the benefits and liabilities of the assimilationist and pluralist views regarding race and ethnic identity? What is the distinction between weak and strong preferential treatment? Which of them is most justifiable from a moral point of view? Why?

14. For Blum, what is the difference between pity and compassion? Is this distinction morally significant?

15. What is Aristotle’s distinction between three types of friendship? Which of them does he consider to be the most valuable? Why is that the case? In your considered view, is Emerson’s view of friendship anything like that of Aristotle? Is Montaigne’s?

16. What is a supererogatory action? What is the standard classification of moral actions? Do supererogatory actions fit in the standard classification system? How does Susan Wolff critique the notion that supererogatory actions are always morally praiseworthy? Do you agree? Why? Are supererogatory actions always consistent with the virtue of self-respect? Explain.

17. How are conceptions of determinism relevant to the question of moral responsibility?

18. If a fetus is a person, according to Thomson, what follows regarding the moral status of abortion?

19. In your considered view, does suicide always involve lack of self-respect? How does paternalism fit into the problem of the moral status of suicide?

20. What is the distinction between active and passive euthanasia? Do you believe that Rachels is right when he argues that there is no moral distinction between the two? Do you agree with his position regarding which form of euthanasia is preferable, overall?

21. What is speciesism? What is Singer’s view about “equal consideration of interests”?

22. C. Adams’ article: what is the “soul/body” split? How is it related to abusive treatment of women, children and animals? Do you agree with her assessment of things? Why?